Armed and ready: Training skills of all Hoysala police patrol staff upgraded
The recent attempted robbery and shootout at a jewellery shop in Kodigehalli and the quick action by the Hoysala team has revealed how the training skills of the staff had been upgraded and armed with weapons to handle any eventualities.
City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda said that all the 241 Hoysala teams have been upgraded with the Head Constable to Assistant Police Sub Inspector as patrol officers, along with training to handle the situation with arms. The Police Sub Inspectors will have to replace the ASI as patrol officers in case the latter is not available for duty.
The Hoysala staff in both the shifts have been trained on how to tackle different situations tactically instead of the conventional way of visiting and reporting the incident to the jurisdictional station.
Reduced response time Elaborating on this, Mr. Dayananda said that the ASI and officials above the rank are equipped to handle the situation better and more responsibly in tasks ranging from talking to the complainant, responding and decisionmaking. Due to this, the response time has been reduced to seven minutes, he said.
“Arming the staff and training them accordingly is need of the hour in the present crime scenario of the city. In addition to this, the PSI and above officers and even the night beat constable have been made to carry the arms compulsorily. This is part of the uniform and they must carry the weapons,“Mr. Dayananda said, adding that the night beat constables have been given pump action rifle which is more effective and advanced than the conventional 303 rifles. The beat constables have been ordered to pick up the weapon and drop it at the station compulsorily so that they could brief the station incharge. This is to make them come to the station on regular basis without fail, Mr. Dayananda added.
Mandatory patrol duty Apart from upgrading the Hoysala vehicle with advanced wireless system, provision of firstaid box, body cameras and reflective jackets to the staff has improved the performance of the patrolling team effectively, he said.
The new officials of the rank of Inspector and above have been asked to go on patrol duty compulsorily to understand the system. This will help them to supervise in a better manner, he said.
The ACP incharge of the Hoysala vehicles has been asked to inspect the vehicles on a regular basis to keep them fit and fine.
Reacting to the new beat system, a police officer part of the Hoysala team called it “a challenging task”.
“The officer incharge has been burdened with loads of work with high expectations,” he said.